While still holding a solid lead against her Democrat rivals in the race for her party's nomination, new polls suggest Sen. Hillary Clinton's stumble at a presidential debate in Philadelphia has caused the front-runner to drop in the polls, both nationally and in the key primary state of New Hampshire.A national poll issued by Rasmussen Reports yesterday showed Mrs. Clinton's support falling to 39 percent, her lowest total since Sept. 28. As early as Oct. 24, six days prior to the debate where Mrs. Clinton gave conflicting answers to a question on her support for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, the Clinton campaign had 49 percent of the vote."Sen. Clinton's fall in the polls in not surprising," stated Brian Darling, political analysts for the Heritage Foundation. Arguing her numbers were a bit inflated, Mr. Darling also said the dip in the polls "shows that immigration is an issue bigger than most anticipated."During the Oct 30 debate, Mrs. Clinton was asked if she supported the decision of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, a question she seemed uncomfortable answering. Mrs. Clinton, clearly out of her comfort zone, stumbled, appearing to take both sides of the issue.In the days following the debate, Mrs. Clinton's chief rivals, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who has 21 percent nationally, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who stands at 16 percent, charged the Clinton campaign with wanting to avoid answering tough questions."The fact that she was so indecisive showed she was human and took away from the perception she is invincible," explained Mr. Darling.Mrs. Clinton's lead not only shrunk nationally; her lead in New Hampshire was reduced to just 10 percentage points. In the first Rasmussen poll conducted in New Hampshire since the debate, Mrs. Clinton had 34 percent of the vote, Mr. Obama 24 percent, and Mr. Edwards 15 percent. Mrs. Clinton had a 16-point lead in a previous poll."The knock against the Clinton campaign is that they won't take a stand on the issues," Mr. Darling said, a campaign strategy that will have to change if Mrs. Clinton is to hold her front-runner status."It is too early in the game to give up touchdowns," stated Mr. Darling. "While Sen. Clinton does not have to completely change her campaign strategy, she will have to start answering questions."

Hillary Clinton has moved into attack mode against her main rival Barack Obama after a poll put him ahead in Iowa, where the first caucus to decide the Democratic Party's presidential nominee is held in less than a month.

Full coverage: US election 2008Speaking on the campaign trail in the Midwestern state, the former First Lady said "Now the fun part starts," before launching into a character assassination of Mr Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been resorting to personal attacks

"How did running for president become a qualification to be president?" she demanded. "This is not a job you can learn about from a book."

Mrs Clinton sneered at Mr Obama for dodging difficult votes on abortion and gun control when he was a state senator and mocked him for a lack of experience and over-reaching ambition.

"So you decide which makes more sense: entrust our country to someone who is ready on day one … or to put America in the hands of someone with little national or international experience, who started running for president the day he arrived in the US Senate," she told an audience in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The 46-year-old senator has previously suggested that Mrs Clinton feels she has a right to the presidency after eight years as First Lady and six as senator for New York, and claimed he only decided to run for the White House relatively recently.

The row between the two rivals reached its low point when the Clinton campaign issued a press release quoting an essay written by Mr Obama at the age of six at nursery school in Indonesia, entitled "I want to become president".

Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman, said the essay proved his words were hollow. "Senator Obama's relatives and friends say he has been talking about running for president for at least the last 15 years. So who's not telling the truth, them or him?" he said.

With the battle for the 2008 nomination sliding towards open warfare, Mr Obama's campaign set up a website on Monday, Hillary Attacks, chronicling "baseless attacks" on his record and character and appealing for donations to strengthen the campaign. Mrs Clinton's advisers maintain that they are merely responding to weeks of personal criticism by Mr Obama and John Edwards, the third-placed contender, who have portrayed her as a dissembler and a centrist who not only voted for the Iraq war but refuses to apologise for doing so.

The former First Lady still tops national polls, but has seen a seven-point lead in Iowa eroded over the past two months.

Much of her appeal to voters has been the aura of "inevitability" around her well-disciplined campaign, which has been engendered by her experience, command of the issues and eloquence.

But many pundits think her lack of personal rapport with voters means her support is much wider than it is deep.

If that starts to slip, then an Obama win in Iowa could give him the momentum for victory in New Hampshire and other states that vote soon afterwards.

advertisementAlthough Mr Obama's three-point lead in Iowa is below the margin of error, he is seen as the candidate with the momentum behind him, prompting Mrs Clinton to change course.

• George W Bush has said that he misses being on the campaign trail for the presidency apart from the respiratory infection he said he caught from a reporter covering his 2000 campaign.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - A new poll Monday showed Hillary Clinton losing a general election to all potential Republican White House foes, in a new sign that fierce political attacks may be harming her 2008 campaign.

But the Democratic front-runner insisted she would win the party presidential nod, and warned she would take on her newly aggressive opponents head-on, just 38 days before Iowa's leadoff caucus nominating contests.

The Zogby International hypothetical 2008 matchup, reversing months of Clinton dominance over the Republican field, came as her camp battled in an ugly new spat with her top Democratic rival Barack Obama.

The Illinois senator meanwhile said chat show queen Oprah Winfrey would sprinkle showbiz stardust on his campaign in a three-state swing in December.

He also issued a sarcastic appraisal of Clinton's claims of top level political experience, during her eight years at husband Bill Clinton's side as first lady between 1993 and 2001.

"Senator Clinton is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn't work out, in which case she says she has nothing to do with it," Obama said in an ABC News interview to be broadcast later Monday.

He compared conversations between the former president and his wife with his own talks with his own spouse.

"I don't think Michelle would claim that she is the best qualified person to be a United States senator by virtue of me talking to her on occasion about the work I've done."

The Clinton campaign hit back hard, driving home her argument that Obama would need "on the job training" in the White House.

"Considering that Senator Obama was a state senator just three years ago, he is the last person to be questioning anyone's experience," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer.

"If he is elected, he would have less experience than any American president of the 20th century."

The Zogby poll reopened a simmering debate in the Democratic presidential field over which candidate has the best chance to beat a

Republican in the general election showdown in November 2008.

In hypothetical 2008 matchups, it showed Clinton trailed Senator John McCain 42 percent to 38 percent, ex-mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani by 43 percent to 40 percent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney 43 to 40 percent.

She also lagged behind former Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee by 44 to 39 percent, and former Senator Fred Thompson by 44 to 40 percent.

Clinton's top Democratic challengers Obama and John Edwards however would still beat their hypothetical Republican rivals in potential 2008 contests, the poll showed.

In July, Clinton held a five point lead in the same poll over Giuliani, edged out McCain by two points and had a clear lead over other contenders.

A Rasmussen poll last week had Clinton also falling behind Giuliani in a November 2008 matchup and narrowly beaten by McCain.

An average of all previous similar polls however gives Clinton a narrow lead over possible Republican candidates, and the former first lady still leads most state and national polls.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll last week in Iowa however gave Obama the slimmest of leads over her and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

Clinton has repeatedly portrayed herself as the most electable Democrat after years standing up to what she calls the "Republican attack machine."

"I have absorbed a lot of attacks, my opponents have basically had a free reign," she told CBS News in an interview on Monday.

"After (being) attacked as often as I have from several of my opponents, you can't just absorb it, you have to respond."

Clinton also dismissed the idea that one of her rivals could deprive her of the Democratic nomination. "It will be me," she said.

The Zogby poll was conducted online among 9,150 likely voters across the United States between November 21 and 26, and carried a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.

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If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? m.of v. w.shaka speare